PRIVATE LABEL BRANDS AND STORE LOYALTY A STUDY · PDF filethe emergence of malls, ......

International Journal of Management Studies ISSN(Print) 2249-0302 ISSN (Online)2231-2528 http://www.researchersworld.com/ijms/

___________________________________________- 62 - Vol-IV, Special Issue-3, November 2017

PRIVATE LABEL BRANDS AND STORE LOYALTY –

A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO APPARELS

Bindubasini.S,

Research Scholar,

Research & Development Centre,

Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. India.

Assistant Professor,

Guru Nanak College, Velachery,

Chennai, India.

Dr.Shakila.M.K,

Director – MBA,

Guru Nanak College,

Velachery, Chennai, India.

ABSTRACT

This research studies about the penetration of private label brands towards the

minds of customers and its influence over the enhancement of store loyalty. The

main objective of the study is to identify the key factors to improve store loyalty

particularly in private label brands and to determine the relationship between the

private label brands and store loyalty. Data comprises of 200 samples within the

Chennai city. Convenient sampling technique was used to select samples. The

nature of the study is descriptive. MAX, RELIANCE Trends, Big Bazaar are the

three private label brands chosen for date collection.

Keywords: Private label brands, customer perception, store loyalty, loyal

customers.



INTRODUCTION:

In the competitive market, all the retail companies are trying very hard to reach top place in the

minds of customer, in this situation a new concept which every company focuses is private

labelling of their own brands to retain their customer. Particularly in apparels from big

renowned brands with multiple store to a famous but small brand with fewer chains of shops are

competing to up hold their brand to attract and retain the customers. According to American

Marketing association (AMA) in the 1960s that “a name, term, sign, Symbol or design or a

combination of them. Intended to identify the goods and services of one seller of group of

sellers and differentiate them from those of competitors”.

In the rivalry situation the retail store are framing their creative ideas and trying to capture the

customers for their brands. One of the powerful strategies which the marketers introduced in the

market is private labelling. Exclusive collection of models, sizes, designs, varieties are

manufactured and that is being sold to their customers in the form of private label.

This phenomenal strategy is very much attractive to the customers and this made the customers

to visit the same store again that helps the store to increase the store loyalty. In order to

maintain the same, retail outlets are making much effort to understand and observe the

expectations of the customers and adopt all those expectations in manufacturing the private

label apparels.

PRIVATE LABEL BRANDS:

Private label brands are those brands which are exclusively owned, designed and sold by the

retail store, in most of the cases their own store name has been used for Private label products.

Private label exists in all industry but it benchmarks its presence in apparel sector. Particularly

in the late 1970’s private label concept entered India, within a short period and much effort

invested by the retailers have paved the way to reach the epitome in apparel industry. May be

the emergence of malls, hypermarket also contribute to the major reason for the emergence of

private label.

In the fast moving and busy economy, people visit malls to spend valuable time and relax with

their families, friends and colleagues. This scenario changes the shopping behavior and

influence then to purchase apparels in the shops located at the malls. Individual shops are taking

many steps to attract the mall visitors to enters into their shop. One best strategy ideally

followed by the retail store is private labeling.

According to the private Label Manufacturers association (PLMA) “Private label products

encompass all merchandise sold under a retailer’s brand. The brand can be the retailer’s own

name or a name created exclusively by that retailer. In some cases, a retailer may belong to a

wholesale group that owns the brands that are available only to the members of the group”.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

To understand the perception of the consumers towards Private label apparels.

To evaluate the satisfaction level of the customers about the private label apparels.

To compare the relationship between private label and store loyalty.

To identify the key factor to improve store loyalty

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Price and Quality:

The price of the private label brands were considered as cheap alternatives for the national

brands compromising on the quality, during the initial stages of the evolution of the private

label brands. However, the consumer’s perception has now changed. People started buying the

private label brands and consider them as competitive to national brands in terms of quality and

price (Singh & De, 2016). They consider private label brands are quality equivalent to national



brands, even when the private label brands are priced up to 15% less than that of the national

brands (Grewal & Levy, 2009). Also, consumers have started to believe that the private label

brands provide the value for money (Gugloth & Murali, 2014).

Most important two factors which influence consumers to purchase private label brands are

price factor and quality factor (Chakraborty, 2013). Low priced private label in comparison to

national brand with good quality is the success factor for private label products (Labeaga, Lado,

& Martos, 2007). Quality is considered as a potential a factor for Private label success (Hoch &

Banerji, 1993). Price is considered as an important factor for purchasing Private label after

which quality and availability of the products comes into account. It is perceived that private

labels are low priced products so low income group prefers to buy private labels for better life

style (Gala & Patil, 2013).

For the quality seeking customers, the evaluation of the apparel quality may not be directly

related to the emotional appeal of the apparel, but the intrinsic characteristics of the apparel

(Forsythe, 1991).

Purchase Decision:

The customers are mainly of two types. The first type of customers gives more stress to the

quality. Such customers are willing to pay a higher price in order to get the best quality product.

The second type of customers looks for products at reasonable prices. These customers make

the purchase decision after analyzing the price and quality aspects of the products (Kumar &

Kothari, 2015). There could be a tradeoff between the price and quality, while arriving at a

purchase decision.

However, in the segments where the private label brands have more market share than national

brands, the factors such as quality, price and loyalty doesn’t contribute much to the purchase

decision. In the segments where private label brands have less market share, the competitive

strategies of the private label brands accounts for the purchase decision of the customers (Mark

S. Glynn & Shaoshan Chen, 2009).Even though image of the national brands seem to impact

consumers’ purchase decision, consumers rely primarily on the actual apparel characteristics,

and not the brand name alone (Forsythe, 1991).

Income level of the people is not an influencing factor to affect or to attract the purchase

decision on private label products. There is no relationship between private label brands and

income level of the consumers. Customers prefer to buy private label products than national

brands irrespective of their income level (Kumar & Kothari, 2015). However, It is also

important to note that the perceived risk will negatively impact the purchase decision of the

customers (Liljander, Polsa, & van Riel, 2009).

Positioning:

Consumers are more likely to talk to the store personnel when buying the apparels than when

buying the groceries to understand whether the attributes of the apparels and material. It is

necessary for the store personnel to be knowledgeable about the private label products and

should be able to reassure the customers about the quality (Liljander et al., 2009).

Private label brands are positioning themselves in the minds of consumers especially apparel

segments are growing very fast in private labeling. Major factors which influence the success of

the private labels are quality, price, trustworthiness and variety. (Ramakrishnan & Ravindran,

2012). It is also important for the for the retailers to stress on the quality and the value for

money of the private label brands, as these two factors are the direct drivers of the purchase

intentions and would catalyze the position of the private label brands (Liljander et al., 2009).

Even if the store differentiates itself from the competitor in terms of its edge on quality, it

should combine the role of quality oriented store brand to differentiate from the competitors and

price oriented store brands in order to attract the price oriented customers(Martos-Partal &

González-Benito, 2011).



Store Loyalty:

Private label brands contribute to building the store loyalty in a way that the private brands are

exclusively available at specific retailer while the national brands available in the competing

retailers. Thus the retailers in turn can use store brand loyalty as a marketing tool to attract

traffic to their stores and to differentiate them from other retailers (Labeaga et al.,

2007)(Labeaga et al., 2007)(Labeaga et al., 2007) A quality based private label brand stresses

the capacity of the retailer to generate store loyalty and segmenting the customers according to

their price sensitivity will also be helpful in strategy planning to improve store loyalty (Martos-

Partal & González-Benito, 2011).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This research is Descriptive in nature, around 200 samples were collected within the Chennai

city, survey method was adopted, structured Questionnaire were prepared based on the factors

identified from the review, through questionnaire opinion was collected from the customers of

Max, Reliance Trends and Big Bazaar.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

Demographic Profile of the Respondents

The respondents are inclusive of males and females; the number of males being 118 and

females being 82.

Table (I): Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid

Male 118 59.0 59.0 59.0

Female 82 41.0 41.0 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

The age group of the respondents ranges from 18 years to 55 years with the average being 35

years. For research purpose, the respondents are grouped into five categories, as mentioned in

table (III).

Table (II): Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Age in Years 200 18 55 35.29 10.448

Valid N (listwise) 200

Table (III): Age Group


Valid

Up to 20 Yrs. 18 9.0 9.0 9.0

21 - 30 Yrs. 49 24.5 24.5 33.5

31 - 40 Yrs. 75 37.5 37.5 71.0

41 - 50 Yrs 39 19.5 19.5 90.5

Above 50 Yrs 19 9.5 9.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Shopping Cart Items:

We could understand the ultimate thought of the consumer’s when we ask them about their cart

space sharing between the private label brands and national brands. The instantaneous thought

of the consumers with respect to their own shopping cart may show us their mindset about their

purchase decisions they carried out earlier. Table (IV) shows that the 44.5% of the respondents

the respondents say that most of their cart items are private label brands while the rest say that

most of their purchases are national brands.



Table (IV): Cart Items


Valid

Private Labels 89 44.5 44.5 44.5

National Brands 111 55.5 55.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Purchase Repetition:

When the consumes is comfortable with the apparels they purchase, in terms of either quality or

price or any other factor, they could go for the repeated purchase of that particular brand. It

could be private label brand or national brand. The table(V) shows that 56% of the people

confirm that they purchase a particular brand repeatedly.

Table (V): Repeated Purchase


Valid

No 88 44.0 44.0 44.0

Yes 112 56.0 56.0 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Out of those who are purchasing a specific brand repeatedly, 48.2% purchase the private label

brands repeatedly while 51.8% purchase the national brand. Thus out of the total, 27% of the

respondents purchase the private labels repeatedly.

Table (VI): Brand Repeated

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Private Label Brands 54 27.0 48.2 48.2

National Brands 58 29.0 51.8 100.0

Total 112 56.0 100.0

Missing No Repeat Purchase 88 44.0

Total 200 100.0

Private Label Brand:

The price of the private label brands may or may not be less than that of the national brands in

the apparel stores. When it comes to the private label brands, the consumers expect certain

quality attributes for the price they pay for the apparels. 59.5% of the respondents say that the

quality of the private label brands is on par with the price which they spend on it.

Table (VII): Price Quality Equivalence


Valid

Yes 119 59.5 59.5 59.5

No 81 40.5 40.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Consumers may think of some attributes of similarities and distinctions between private

label brands and national brands. Ignoring the price criteria, 46.5% of the people say that

private label brands are equivalent and alternative to national brand in terms of its usability.



Table (VIII): Private Label - Alternative for National Brand


Valid

Yes 93 46.5 46.5 46.5

No 107 53.5 53.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Attention to Others’ Thoughts:

Whether a person is a student or an employee or an entrepreneur, dressing up well is considered

as a personality trait. While some care for what others think of their appearance, some do not

care for what others think. Out of the total respondents, 53.5% of the respondents care for what

others think of their appearance and dressing sense.

Table (IX): Care for Others' Thoughts


Valid

Yes 107 53.5 53.5 53.5

No 93 46.5 46.5 100.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

Influence of People:

Most of the shopping activities, especially when it comes to apparels are carried out with the

company of someone or a group. The person, who accompanies us for shopping may interfere

or have impact on our purchase decision. It depends on the strength of our relationship with that

person and our acceptability. Keeping this idea as a reference, the relationship between the

people who accompanies the shopping and the most of the items in shopping carts can be test

with the following hypotheses.

H0: There is no significant relationship between the person accompanying during shopping and

the type of brand of apparels in the shopping cart.

H1: There is a significant relationship between the person accompanying during shopping and

the type of brand of apparels in the shopping cart.

In order to test this hypothesis, we need to do a cross tabulation and carry out the Chi-Square

test for association. The output of this test is shown below.

Table (X): Accompanied By * Cart Items Cross-tabulation

Count

Cart Items Total

Private Labels National Brands

Accompanied By

Family 26 34 60

Friends 34 42 76

Colleagues 21 29 50

None 8 6 14

Total 89 111 200

Table (XI): Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 1.067a 3 .785

Likelihood Ratio 1.061 3 .787

Linear-by-Linear Association .219 1 .640

N of Valid Cases 200

a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 6.23.



In the above table (XI), the significance value for Pearson Chi-Square is 0.785 which is greater

than 0.05. Hence, we accept the null hypothesis and there is no significant relationship between

the person accompanying during shopping and the type of brand of apparels in the shopping cart.

Influence of Income Level:

As said earlier, the price of the private label brand is assumed to be lower than that of the

national brand apparels. If this assumption is believed by the people, the preference towards the

private label brand and national brand may be influenced by the income level of the

respondents. To test this relationship, the hypotheses are devised as follows:

H0: There is no significant relationship between the income level and the type of brand of

apparels in the shopping cart.

H1: There is a significant relationship between the income level and the type of brand of

apparels in the shopping cart.

Table (XII): Income Per Annum * Cart Items Cross-tabulation

Count

Cart Items

Total Private

Labels

National

Brands

Annual Income

Less than 2.5 Lakhs 6 2 8

Between 2.5 Lakhs and 4 Lakhs 22 14 36

Between 4 Lakhs and 5 Lakhs 30 42 72

Between 5 Lakhs and 6 Lakhs 23 35 58

6 Lakhs or Above 8 18 26

Total 89 111 200



Table (XIII): Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)



Linear-by-Linear Association 8.184 1 .004



Here, the Pearson Chi-Square significance value is 0.044 which is less than 0.05. Hence, the

null hypothesis is rejected and the income level income level of the respondents significantly

influences the decision on private label vs. national brand apparels.

Brand Image Influence:

People get influenced by the brand image, if so due to several factors. Once of such factors can be

the attention to others’ thought about the appearance, if they believe that national brands influences

the appearance and there by personality. Given below are the hypotheses to test such influence.

H0: Giving importance to others’ thoughts about appearance does not influence the attraction

towards a brand.

H1: Giving importance to others’ thoughts about appearance influences the attraction towards a

brand.

Table (XIV): Care for Others' Thoughts * Brand Image Influence Cross tabulation Count

Brand Image Influence Total

Yes No

Care for Others' Thoughts Yes 53 54 107

No 29 64 93

Total 82 118 200



Table (XV): Chi-Square Tests

Value df

Asymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(1-sided)


Continuity Correctionb 6.188 1 .013


Fisher's Exact Test .010 .006

Linear-by-Linear

Association 6.891 1 .009



b. Computed only for a 2x2 table

The Pearson Chi-Square significance in the above table(XV) is 0.008 which is less than 0.05

and hence the null hypothesis is rejected. Out this, we could say that the respondents who care

for others’ thought on their appearance significantly get influenced by the brand image.

Private Label Brands as Alternatives:

With respect to private label brands we found that 59.5% of the respondents say that the quality

of the private label brands is on par with their price. We also found that the 46.5% of the

respondents say that the private label brands are the perfect alternative for the national brands,

neglecting price criteria. It is necessary to check whether there is any relationship between

customers’ perception towards the price quality equivalence and their acceptance of private

label brands as alternative to national brands.

H0: There is no significant relationship between customers’ perception towards the price quality

equivalence and their acceptance of private label brands as alternative to national brands.

H1: There is a significant relationship between customers’ perception towards the price quality

equivalence and their acceptance of private label brands as alternative to national brands.

Table (XVI): Price Quality Equivalence * Private Label - Alternative for Brand Cross

tabulation

Count

Private Label - Alternative

for National Brand Total

Yes No

Price Quality Equivalence Yes 77 42 119

No 16 65 81

Total 93 107 200

Table (XVII): Chi-Square Tests

Value df

Asymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(1-sided)


Continuity Correctionb 37.362 1 .000


Fisher's Exact Test .000 .000

Linear-by-Linear

Association 38.952 1 .000



b. Computed only for a 2x2 table



In this test, the significance value 0 which is less than 0.05. Hence, the null hypothesis is

rejected. It implies that there is a significant relationship between customers’ perception

towards the price quality equivalence and their acceptance of private label brands as alternative

to national brands.

In other words, the respondents, who say the quality of the private label brands is on par with their

price, believe that the private label brands are the perfect alternative for the national brands. On

the other hand, the respondents, who say the quality of the private label brands is not on par with

their price, do not think that the private label brands are alternative for the national brands.

PRICE AND QUALITY PERCEPTION:

Price and Quality are the major factors that determine the customers’ preference towards the

private label brands and national brands. The private label brands may have certain competitive

edge when compared to national brand, which is the reason why most of the apparel retailers have

their own private labels. Assessing the satisfaction level of the customers with respect to the price

and the quality of the private label brand may help in devising the strategy and improving the store

loyalty. Also, it is important to check whether the people who are satisfied with the price of the

private label brands are also satisfied with the quality of the private label brands. This will

enumerate the equilibrium between price and quality of the private label brands.

H0: There is no significant correlation between the level of satisfaction with price of private

labels and the level of satisfaction with price of quality label brands.

H1: There is a significant correlation between the level of satisfaction with price of private

labels and the level of satisfaction with price of quality label brands.

Table (XVIII): Correlations

Satisfaction

with Price of

Private Labels

Satisfaction with

Quality of

Private Labels

Spearman's

rho

Satisfaction with

Price of Private

Labels

Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .576**

Sig. (2-tailed) . .000

N 200 200

Satisfaction with

Quality of Private

Labels

Correlation Coefficient .576**

1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .

N 200 200

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The Spearman’s correlation coefficient is 0.576 and the significance value is 0 which is less

than 0.05. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. There is a moderate positive correlation

between the level of satisfaction with price of private labels and the level of satisfaction with

price of quality label brands.

Gender and Satisfaction Level:

We could witness certain brands which are gender specific. At the same time a store can have

its own private gender specific brands. It is necessary test the overall satisfaction with the

private label brands vary with gender. This can be done using Mann-Whitney U test. The

hypotheses for this test are as follows:

H0: There is no significant relationship between gender and the level of overall satisfaction with

the private label brand.

H1: There is a significant relationship between gender and the level of overall satisfaction with

the private label brand.



Table (XIX): Ranks

Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks

Overall Satisfaction with

Private Label Brands

Male 118 98.71 11648.00

Female 82 103.07 8452.00

Total 200

Table (XX): Test Statisticsa

Overall Satisfaction with Private Label

Mann-Whitney U 4627.000

Wilcoxon W 11648.000

Z -.539

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .590

a. Grouping Variable: Gender

The significance value of Mann-Whitney U test is 0.59 which is greater than 0.05. Hence we

accept null hypothesis and there is no significant relationship between gender and the level of

overall satisfaction with the private label brand.

Purchase Decision Factors:

The ultimate objective of any brand, either private label brand or national brand is to incept a

purchase decision in customers’ minds. The purchase decision is influenced by various factors

which can be tangible and intangible. The most common factors are price, quality, design/cut,

reliability and comfort. The respondents have ranked these factors from 1 to 5 based on the

amount of influence each has on their purchase decision, 1 being highly influential factor and 5

being least influential factor. The below tables show the average rankings of these factors and

the Kendall’s coefficient of concordance of the ranks.

Table (XXI): Ranks

Mean Rank

Decision Factor - Quality 1.27

Decision Factor - Design/Cut 2.26

Decision Factor - Comfort 3.51

Decision Factor - Price 3.62

Decision Factor - Reliability 4.35

Table (XXII): Test Statistics

N 200

Kendall's Wa .608

Chi-Square 486.011

df 4

Asymp. Sig. .000

a. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance

In the above table, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance is .608 and the significance level is 0. It

means that the respondents agree with each other to a reasonable extent in terms of ranking the

decision factors.



Store Loyalty:

The store loyalty can be measure in different forms. Once of the form is the customers’

intention to recommend the store and the private label corresponding to a particular store. The

store loyalty is influence by several factors such as customers’ shopping experience, satisfaction

with the previous purchases, etc. Once the customer becomes loyal to a particular store, they

may take additional efforts such as time, distance etc, in order to make a purchase in the same

store. The relationship between customers’ preference to purchase the familiar store and the

willingness to take additional efforts to purchase in the familiar store is tested below.

H0: There is no significant correlation between customers’ preference to purchase the familiar

store and the willingness to take additional efforts to purchase in the familiar store.

H1: There is a significant correlation between customers’ preference to purchase the familiar

store and the willingness to take additional efforts to purchase in the familiar store.

Table (XXIII): Correlations

Prefers Familiar

Store/Chain

Takes Effort to Shop at

Familiar Store/Chain

Spearman's

rho

Prefers

Familiar

Store/Chain

Correlation

Coefficient 1.000 .921

**


N 200 200

Takes Effort

to Shop at

Familiar

Store/Chain

Correlation

Coefficient .921

** 1.000


N 200 200


The Spearman’s correlation coefficient in the table (XXIII) is 0.921 and the significance value

is 0 which is less than 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. There is a highly positive

correlation between customers’ preference to purchase the familiar store and the willingness to

take additional efforts to purchase in the familiar store

The store loyalty doesn’t end in purchasing the products in the same store alone. It also includes

the intention of the customers to recommend the store to others. Assuming the customers’

satisfaction level with the private label brands of a particular store influences the store loyalty,

the hypothesis is framed as below.

H0: There is no significant correlation between the level of overall satisfaction with theprivate

label brand and the intention to recommend the brand/store to others.

H1: There is a significant correlation between the level of overall satisfaction with theprivate

label brand and the intention to recommend the brand/store to others.

Table (XXIV): Correlations

Overall

Satisfaction with

Private Label

Recommends

Others

Spearman's

rho

Overall Satisfaction

with Private Label

Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .695**


N 200 200

Recommends

Others

Correlation Coefficient .695**

1.000


N 200 200




In this test, the Spearman’s correlation coefficient is 0.695 and the significance value is 0 which

is less than 0.05. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. There is a positive correlation between

the overall satisfaction level with the private label brand and the customers’ intention to

recommend the brand or store to others

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION:

The repeated purchase of certain brands is an indicator of the satisfaction level of the customers

and the store loyalty. While 44% of the respondents do not go for the same brand repeatedly,

27% purchase the private label and 29% purchase the national brands repeatedly. The

intentional repeated purchase of the apparel brands by the consumers is approximately equal in

terms of both private label brands and national brands. This shows that the customers get

themselves attracted to the apparels irrespective of whether private label brands or national

brand, provided the products fulfils consumers’ expectations.

This study reveals that the customers give importance to the intrinsic value of the apparels,

whether it is private label brand or national brand. The customers are able to assess value for

money spent on private label brands in terms of price quality equivalence and 59.5% of the

customers believe that the quality of the private label brand apparels is on par with their price and

46.5% customers feel that the private label brand can be a perfect alternative for the national

brands. The difference of 13% between these two statements reveals that the portion of customers

still feel that there are some other factors which differentiate the national brands from the private

label brands. The customers, who are saying the quality of the private label brands is on par with

their price, strongly believe that the private label brands are the perfect alternative for the national

brands. At the same time, the customers who say the quality of the private label brands is not on

par with their price, do not consider the private label brands as alternative for the national brands.

The customers’ attitude towards the private label brands and national brands is driven by the

attention that they get from others. Some may think that it is important to get noticed by others

and their thoughts about them are influence by the brand of apparels they wear. In this study,

53.5% of the customers give importance to the thoughts of their friends, family and colleagues

and strangers about their appearance.

Some people consider shopping as a way to spend time with friends and family. Almost all the

shopping activity is carried out with the company of friends or family or colleagues. The study

shows that the preference of customers towards private label brands and national brands can be

influenced by the person who accompanied during the shopping activity. However, this

influence cannot be differentiated based of the type of company. In other words, the different

types of relationship with person accompanying during shopping may equally influence the

preference towards private label brand and national brand.

The review suggests that the customers have overcome the thought of private label brands

having lesser prices compared to the national brands. However, the study reveals that the

preference towards the private label brands and national brands is influenced by the income

level of the customers. We couldn’t confirm whether the price alone is considered by the

customers of different economic segments. However, it can be inferred that people with high

economic status consider the national brands to project the economic status positively.

While there are many factors on which the customers can get satisfied on using the private label

apparels, the two main factors are quality and price. The retailers need to cope up with the

expectations of the customers in terms of both price perspective and quality perspective. This

study shows that the satisfaction level of the customers with the price of the private label brands

are positively correlated with the satisfaction level with the quality of the private label brands.

Even though the correlation cannot be said highly positive, we could say that it is moderately

enough to consider the satisfaction levels in both perspectives move together. This makes clear

that the customers are not forced to compromise the quality to get lower prices or to

compromise on price to get higher quality. This is a good sign that the private label brands have



enough potential to compete with the national brands. It is also found that the gender of the

customers doesn’t play any prominent role in the satisfaction level on the private label brands.

The purchase decision of the customers is influenced by both tangible factors and intangible

factors. The customers give importance to the purchase decision factors Quality, Design/Cut,

Comfort, Price and Reliability. It is noted that the quality of the apparel is the top priority factor

which influences the purchase decision and is followed by the design/cut which also includes

the availability of choices. The reliability is the least influential factor which comes next to the

price. From this we could infer that the customers give more importance to quality and design

attributes of the apparels than the price of the apparels.

There are several aspects which could be evaluated to measure the store loyalty. In this study, the

store loyalty is measured in terms of customers’ preference to purchase the apparels from the

familiar store; willingness to take additional efforts to shop in the preferred store and intention to

recommends the preferred brand or store to friends, family, colleagues, etc. The study reveals that

the customers who prefer to purchase the private label brands from the familiar store, with which

they are satisfied, are willing to take additional efforts to carry out the purchases. These additional

efforts can be in terms of time required to be spent, the distance need to be travelled, etc.

When it comes to word of mouth, people tend to recommend their favorite brands or stores to

their family, friends and colleagues. This intention of the customers is mainly based on the

previous purchase activities of the customers. This study shows that the customers’ intention to

recommend their favorite stores is positively and moderately influenced by the overall

satisfaction level of the customers with the private label brands. The absence of high influence

may be due to other store related factors, rather than product related factors. In other words, the

customers’ overall satisfaction level with the private label brand is one of the factors which

influence the willingness to recommend the store to others.

CONCLUSION:

The main objective of this study was to understand the customers’ perception towards the

private label brands. The customers’ perception with respect to private label brands has been

studied in terms of price, quality and we could infer the relationship between these factors and

their impact on the satisfaction level of the customers. The role of brand image in influencing

the customer’s preference towards the private label brands has also been analyzed. We could

also witness that the type of relationship with the person with which whom the customers carry

out the shopping activities doesn’t have any specific influence on the preference towards the

private label brands. However, the income level of the customers has certain impact over the

customers’ preference towards private label brands. We could also see how the customers’

perception towards the price quality equivalence of the private label brands have influence on

considering the private label brands as alternative to national brands. The customers’

satisfaction level with respect to the price of the private label brands are found to be positively

correlated with the satisfaction level with respect to the quality of the private label brands and

the gender doesn’t have any influence over the satisfaction level with private label brands. We

have also found the rank orders at which the customers’ decision factors influence the purchase

decision. Finally, we found that the customers who get satisfied with the private label brand are

moderately willing to recommend the retailer to their friends, family and colleagues.

This study was carried out with the sample data collected from customers of selected retailers in

Chennai and not all the retailers in the city. Also, any implication out of this study would be

viable for the retailers in Chennai city only. The study didn’t analyze the individual quality

attributes of the apparels and the researchers which want to conduct further study are advised to

identify the different quality attributes while focusing on the customers’ satisfaction on quality

of private label brands. In addition, the analysis on store loyalty didn’t include the in store

factors such as visual merchandising, etc. as the ultimate aim of this study was to find out the

impact of private label brands on store loyalty.



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